“She had life experience, she was mature beyond her years and that’s the tragedy of all this. She was doing all the right things.”

Eurydice graduated from Princes Hill Secondary College and then studied drama and performed in a Brunswick theatre group.

A neighbour said when she heard about the death she was heartbroken to learn it was Eurydice "Ridi" Dixon, the shy but creative girl she had watched playing on the swings and singing.

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Eurydice was famous for emerging from her flat in the late morning, clomping down the stairs in her heavy platform shoes and jumping the bottom step.

The neighbour, Lisa, 56, says the Dixons - Eurydice, her father Jeremy and her 16-year-old brother – lived humbly in their top-floor flat of the three-storey public housing block about 100 metres east of Princes Park.

Lisa says Jeremy had done a great job as a single father and "lived for his kids" after the children's mother died about 11 years ago.

Lisa said Eurydice was "very intelligent" and always said hello but was reserved. "She kept to herself. She was very much an introvert."

Eurydice's friends don’t want her death to define her life.

They said Eurydice was confident and brave and bold.

“We want people to know she wasn’t just special, she was unique,” Mr Butler said.